There had been an increase in the number of birds in the lagoon this year. A total of 8.39 lakh birds were enumerated in January last year.
The population of the winged visitors in Nalabana Bird sanctuary of the lake was 4.04 lakh as compared to 1.98 lakh during January 2007, Panda said.
The species-wise counts indicated that Gadwall ducks were the predominant among all the species, numbering more than 1.69 lakh. The population of other species which exceeded one lakh in number included Northern Pintails and Northern Shovellers.
The number of birds counted that exceeded 50,000 were Euresian wigeon, common Poachard and common coot.
The flamingo population whose number was less than 500 during last year increased their presence. A total of 1624 greater flamingos were recorded during the census. As many as 56 lesser flamingos were also counted during the census. This species was not seen in the lagoon during the 2007 census.
Rare birds such as Palla's fish eagle, Pintail snipe, Brahmin duck, Bar-headed geese, Oriental white ibis, Euresian spoon bill, etc were also recorded.
As regards the increase in bird population in Nalabana island as compared to the previous year, Panda said it was possible due to de-weeding of Salicornia from the island, restoration of the habitat and construction of mounts which was supported by CDA.
“The continuous increase in bird population during last three years can also be attributed to the fact that the Chilika ecosystem has been maintained to cater the ecological and biological needs of different avian species coming from various countries of the northern hemisphere,” he said.
The birds congregation in Chilika lagoon is the largest bird congregation in India where one can see the diversity of the migratory birds as well as the largest concentration over 15.5 sq km area of Nalabana bird sanctuary.
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